Overview

• A Purdue-led team with partners at Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Argonne, and Poland’s Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics reports MXene sheets containing up to nine transition metals.
• The researchers designed and characterized nearly 40 parent MAX phases, then converted them to MXenes to link composition to surface and electronic behavior.
• Experiments show ordered atomic stacking for two to six metals, with seven or more producing true high‑entropy disorder driven by entropy over enthalpy.
• Synthesis relied on a high‑temperature furnace near 1,600°C to assemble layered carbides and reveal how short‑range ordering governs structure and properties.
• Potential uses include extreme‑environment electronics, energy storage, and ultrathin antennas, though stability, scalability, and performance validation remain ahead, with the dataset positioned to support AI‑guided materials design.